138 



Devonshire Cattle. 



Vol. II. 



more kindly. The favourite color is a 

 blood red. This is supposed to indicate 

 purity of breed; but there are many good 

 cattle approaching almost to a chestnut hue, 

 or even a bay brown. If the eye is clear and 

 good and the skin mellow, the paler colors 

 " will bear hard work, and fatten as well as 

 others; but a beast wiih a pale skin, and 

 hard under the hand, and the eye dark and 

 dead, will be a sluggish worker, and an un- 

 profitable feeder. Those, however, that are 

 of a yellow color, are said to be subject to 

 steut (diarrhoea) 



Some breeders object to the slightest in- 

 termixture of white — not even a star upon the 

 forehead is allowed; yet a few good oxen have 

 large distant pitches of white ; but if the co- 

 lors run into each other, the beasts are con- 

 demned as of a mongrel and valueless breed. 



These are the principal points of a good 

 Devonshire ox ; but he used to be, perhaps 

 he is yet, a little too flat-sided, and the rump 

 narrowed too rapidly behind the hip bones ; 

 he was not sufficiently ribbed home, or there 

 •was too much space between the hip bones 

 and the last rib ; and altogether he was too 

 light for some tenacious and strong soils. 

 The cut of the working ox, in page 121, con- 

 tains the portrait of one, embodying almost 

 every good point of which we have spoken. 



Mr. Western has kindly enabled us here 

 to add another portrait from his farm. It is 

 a son of the bull given at page 121, and is a 

 faithful representation of an ox beginning to 

 fatten, but his characteristic points not yet 

 concealed. Mr. Western has carefully pre- 

 served this breed unmixed for the last 

 thirty years, and all the cattle that he fattens 

 are Devons; he rarely uses them for the 

 plough. 



A selection from the most perfect animals 

 of the true breed, — the bone still small and 

 the neck fine, but the brisket deep and wide, 

 and down to the knees, and not an atom of 

 flatness all over the side — or one cross, and 

 only one with the Hereford, and that steal- 

 thily made, — these have improved the 

 strength and bulk of the North Devon ox, 

 without impairing, in the slightest degree., 

 his activity, his beauty, or his propensity to 

 fatten.* 



•In \Xi.'. ' Annals of Agriculture,' vol xxx., p. 3)4, we 

 liave ttin opinion, in soinewli:it provincial terms, of a 

 goort west-countij' grazier, respecting the best form of tlie 

 Devon cattle. ' lie buj's at all tiini't^, from Christmas 

 to May-day, North Uevons, tliat are bred from Po tlock 

 to liiddcford, such as are five or six years old. He 

 chooses such as are small-horned, and of a yellow- 

 colored honi rallier than white— small bones, as such 

 liea.sts thrive best — rib bones round, not flat — a thick 

 liide bad — a very thin one objectionable — blade bones, 

 chuck— very thick and heavy in the bo-om, as much 

 wi'ijjhi hcs'lliere— the lii:H\iir in ili.' ;-h')Ulder the bet- 

 ti;r, liiit iiui lo elbiiw 'lilt— very wiiK; a.id sijuare from 

 i,he piiiiiLs down to the Ihigli.s— midilliug in the belly — 

 not cow-bellied— not tucked up.' As a grazier lie is 

 right ; but this is not the true working Devonshiru o.\. 



There are few things more remarkable 

 about the Devonshire cattle than the com- 

 parative smallness of the cow. The bull is 

 a great deal less than the ox, and the cow 

 almost as much smaller than the bull. This, 

 however, is some disadvantage, and the 

 breeders are aware of it ; for although it 

 may not be necessary to have a large bull, 

 and especially as those of any extraordinary 

 size are seldom handsome in all theirpoints, 

 somewhere or other present coarseness or 

 deformity, it is almost impossible to procure 

 large and serviceable oxen, except from a 

 somewhat roomy cow. Those cows, how- 

 ever, although small, possess that roundness 

 and projection of the two or three last ribs, 

 which make them actually more roomy than 

 a earless examination of them would indi- 

 cate. The cow is particularly distinguished 

 for her full, round, clear eye, the gold col- 

 ored circle round the eye, and the same 

 color prevailing on the inside skin of the 

 ear. The countenance cheerful, the muzzle 

 orange or yellow, but the rest of the face 

 having nothing of black or even of white 

 about it. The jaws free from thickness and '[. 

 the throat free from dewlap. The points of 

 the back hind quarters different from those 

 of other breeds, having more of roundness 

 and beauty, and being free from most of those 

 angles by which good milkers are sometimes 

 distinguished. 



We are here enabled to present our readers 

 with the portrait of a cow, belonging to that 

 indefatigable agriculturist, Mr. \\estren. 

 She was rising four years old. With re- 

 gard to size she is a favorable specimen of 

 the Devon cow. It will be seen at once 

 how much more roomy and fit for breeding ; 

 she is, than even her somewhat superior 

 bulk would at first indicate. She is, per- 

 haps, in a little better condition than cows 

 generally are, or should be in order to yield 

 their full quantity of milk. 



For the Farmers' Cabinet. 



Ou'Sowing Par.snep and Beet Seed* 



Two or three weeks before I commence :; 

 digging up my garden in the spring, I tie \ 

 up separately, in a piece of cotton or linen \ 

 rag, as many parsnep or beet seed as I wish ,* 

 to plant, and bury them in moist earth, either ' 

 in my garden or a box, or pot; I examine 

 them occasionally, and when they begin to 

 sprout I plant them ; by this method I know 

 every seed that will grow, and have no gaps j 

 in my rows ; I also gain two or three weeks 

 of my neighbors, who wait till they dig up 

 their gardens and prepare their ground for 

 planting. — Gardeners, try it. 



.T. B. C. 



